Moscow Jews Complain of Inadequate Support for Cultural Needs

November 19, 1929

Moscow (Nov. 18)

Complaints of insufficient financial support for the cultural needs of the national minorities of Soviet Russia were voiced at a conference of national minorities held here. The representatives emphasized the fact that the Jewish population of Moscow, which consists of 170,000 people, has only one Yiddish school.

Answering the critcisms, delegate Epstein quoted an article by the Jewish Communist leader, Larin, saying that the Jewish population of Moscow consists of traders and office workers who speak Russian. An editorial in the “Emes,” Yiddish Communist daily, criticizes Larin and demands an increase of Jewish cultural work among Jewish workers.

The Comzet, government society for settling the Jews on the land, is sending 176 Jewish young men to work in the coal mines of the Vladivostok coal region. A conference of the Jewish colonies in the Odessa region decided to collectivize their entire inventory, thus combining 240 fruit gardens embracing 200 hectares of land.